Summary:The Witchy Tarot is like your best friend: smart, pretty, funny, surprising deep and always clever…and always very real and honest. It helps you embrace your power while accepting your shortcomings. This deck gives great Tarot readings and also provides a mini-primer for those new to the Craft. Sprinkled throughout, the reader will learn about useful tools and animal and plant lore as well Wiccan celebrations, moon phases, and goddesses. With the Witchy Tarot, you get great advice and have fun while you’re doing it.

In-Depth Actual:Just because something is cute and fun, doesn’t mean it’s not powerful and serious. In many ways, people are at their most powerful when they’re feeling good, looking good, and having a good time. The Witchy Tarot deck is like that, too. It looks good and it is certainly having a good time. As you work with it, you’ll find that you can have fun with it and also find lots of help, guidance, and answers delivered with a sense of style and a sense of humor.

The Witchy Tarot combines elements of classical Tarot and traditional Witchcraft with an undeniably young vibe. But before we look at some of the sass, let’s take a look at the structure of this deck, which is clever, innovative, and useful. First, twenty-one of Major Arcana cards are divided into three groups: Tools, Plants, and Animals. This gives a balance to the Majors and showing aspects of the Craft, making it a kind of primer, introducing users to various items encountered on the Wiccan path. The only Major not so grouped is the Devil, also called (in this deck) Leonardo…as in Da Vinci. It is rather interesting, really. This card shows Leonardo as one who can make machines that imitate nature but aren’t natural, going outside the flow of Witches, who celebrate and honor nature. Leonardo gives the illusion of nature that is really a machine and the Devil card gives the illusion of freedom that is really bondage.

In many Tarot decks the court cards give readers nothing but trouble. It’s easy to see why. We don’t really relate to the hierarchy of page, knight, queen, and king, even if we understand it intellectually. Also, the images of these figures in the cards are usually just sitting there. Instead of Pages, the Witchy Tarot uses these cards to represent celebrations: Imbolc, Lammas, Beltane, and Samhain. Using the cross-quarter days is a good idea, since the solar festivals are usually better known, again, making this a nice primer for a beginner. The Knights, typically fast-moving energy, are in this deck the phases of the moon: full, waning, waxing, and new. The Queens become goddesses: Bona Dea, Hecate, Holda, and Morrigan, providing a nice sampling of different pantheons. Changing the Kings to Trials is an interesting approach and illustrates how all forms of authority (usually associated with the kings) are not honorable, particularly the "Initiation and Kiss" card. The other Trials are: Sabbat with Dancing, The Brand of Fire, and Flight with Whip and Broomstick.

The structure provides stability and instruction. The images on the cards have the personality and specific messages. One thing about this deck is the sense of realness. Not every card is given a positive spin. Life isn’t always fun; learning to accept and deal with all parts of life is part of the deal. In these cards, the witches are sometimes lost, failing, or being deceived. Sometimes they are mean and petty. They also learn and succeed. They are brave and kind. They are smart and determined. Just like real people. Again, it’s like a primer, showing someone new to the Craft that becoming a Witch does not automatically solve all problems.

The 2 of Boulders is fascinating. It shows two young Witches in the middle of a small stone circle. They are fighting. One is holding a beaded necklace; the other, a bunch of beets. When you first see it you may wonder, "What the heck?" Then you will probably start laughing. They are fighting because of a misunderstanding. They apparently agreed to meet and make a swap. One thought they were swapping beets; the other, beads. If you brought some nice beads, you sure wouldn’t want to trade them for beets, either. Another clever card isn’t quite as funny and portrays a really poignant and tender scene in which a young Witch learns the hard way that people can sometimes just really suck. The card shows her in a clearing at night. A cat, toad, and donkey are around her. Her clothes are in a pile in front of her. She is shivering in the cold night air, holding a candle with one hand and trying to cover herself with her other. The donkey picks up her hat with his teeth and seems to be handing it to her. It looks like she was tricked into taking off her clothes. And now the donkey is trying to "help." He is helping by handing her, first, the least needed piece of clothing and, second, to take it from him, she has to expose herself. The meaning given for the card is "small betrayals hidden behind a favor." Indeed.

This deck is like the kind of person we'd all like to be friends with: smart and grounded, but also clever, witty, and wise. It’s pretty and stylish, fun and sassy. It’s challenging but not too crazy. It’s both reliable and surprising. It reads very well and is wonderfully accurate and clear—something many readers will appreciate. This deck is ideal when you need to be able to laugh at yourself without denigrating yourself; when you need to accept your shortcomings and embrace your power. This is a deck you will use quite often.

Deck AttributesName of deck: Witchy Tarot Publisher: Lo Scarabeo ISBN: 9780738704456 Creator’s name: Laura Tuan Brief biography of creator: A prolific creator of oracle and tarot decks and author of divination books. Artist’s name: Antonella Platano Brief biography of artist: A comic book artist, Antonella has also illustrated the Tarot of 78 Doors and the Gay Tarot. Name of accompanying book/booklet: Witchy Tarot Number of pages of booklet: 62 (14 in English) Author of booklet: Laura Tuan Available in a boxed kit?: Yes. The kit includes a more extensive book. It’s also available as a mini-deck. Reading Uses: General; Romance Artistic Style: Comic Theme: Traditional Wiccan principles in a modern setting with a sense of humor Tarot, Divination Deck, Other: Tarot Does it follow Rider-Waite-Smith Standard?: No Does it have extra cards?: No Does it have alternate names for Major Arcana cards?: Yes, as follows: The Magician: The Witch The High Priestess: The Priestess The World: The Universe Does it have alternate names for Minor Arcana suits?: Yes, as follows: Cups: Cauldrons Pentacles: Boulders Wands: Flames Swords: Broomsticks Does it have alternate names for the Court Cards?: Yes, as follows: Page: Celebration Knight: Moon Queen: Goddess King: Trial Why was deck created?: To explore Tarot from a Wiccan perspective with young-at-heart, cheeky sense of humor. Book suggestions for Tarot beginners and this deck: This deck also comes in a kit form that includes a companion book that is helpful. Alternative decks you might like:The Pagan Tarot, The Sorcerer’s Tarot, The Robin Wood Tarot.

I grew up with the saying, "In like a lion, out like a lamb," as a way of predicting what the weather would be like during the month of March. As a predictive tool, it has never served me well. Tarot has proven much more useful. But even with all its awesome potential, tarot is as much a question generator as it is an answer-giving tool. And that... read this article